In the limelight - Itzhak Perlman

By Graham Dixon

Published 3:57 am, Wednesday, February 13, 2013

He was born in Israel in 1945. He is a childhood survivor of polio, a disease that necessitates the use of an electric chair for performances. He plays the Soil Stradivarius violin, an instrument that is commonly regarded as one of the finest ever made, and that will celebrate its 300th birthday next year.

Beyond his virtuosic playing, Itzhak Perlman is an iconic figure embodying survival and a vivacious joy for life.

The Wagner Noël stage was virtually bare last week, just a grand piano and two chairs greeted the audience. One might think that we had come on the wrong night, that just a rehearsal was about to occur. But of course this was not the case — we were about to experience music at its purest, without the accoutrements of sound amplification, costume, movement, lighting.

Perlman opened with Beethoven’s Sonata for Piano and Violin No.1. Both instruments filled the auditorium with beauty, even though the balance between the two was suspect. One peculiar aspect of the concert was the piano volume, as it nearly drowned out the violin on several occasions, particularly in the first half. I was sitting at the front of the dress circle, but I was told that people in the fourth row of the orchestra and at the very back of the gallery had similar experiences.

A Steinway concert grand is a fairly commonplace experience, a Stradivarius violin is not. It would have been better if the latter had been accentuated over the former.

Apart from the clarity of sound it was the spectacular range of emotion that Perlman conjured from his instrument that was most startling. At times the high notes would sear their way into our emotions, as if reflecting our most ecstatic or agonizing moments. Then at others the low registers would resound with an understated, melancholy longing. The violin vibrated, in concert with the darkest depths of our lives — yet transcended them through sublime expression.

Perlman was by turns playful and serious, dazzlingly virtuosic and quietly understated. It was in the slow movements that the Stradivarius sounded the most majestic, exhibiting an almost preternatural resonance as if it were just a few feet away rather than in a large auditorium.

Near the end of Tartini’s Sonata for Violin, Perlman soloed for several minutes. The audience had been quiet and attentive up to this point, but became transfixed by the sound here. You could understand why a Stradivarius violin is worth several million dollars and is so treasured by the finest players.

Perlman only started speaking after the announced program had finished, but his light-hearted banter seemed to energize his playing. Joy pervaded the Wagner Noël as he went through several pieces such as the Hungarian Dance by Brahms and Wienawksi’s Caprice. One of the encore pieces was intended by Kreisler to sound “Chinese,” but, mused Perlman as he adjusted his strings, “sounds more Viennese to me.”

Despite the profundity of his playing, Perlman is resolute in not taking himself too seriously. His presence exhibits none of the facetious, false modesty exhibited by some classical musicians — he genuinely loves sharing and regards all who are experiencing the music with him as equals.

The fact that UTPB and the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center can attract performers of this caliber so early in the center’s existence suggests an exciting future. At a party a few years ago, someone told me that the Permian Basin can only attract performers who are on the way up or on the way down the ladders of their chosen art — not those who are at the pinnacle.

Perlman’s appearance put that myth to rest.

For all the magnificence of the surroundings, it was Perlman’s vulnerability as he unselfconsciously lifted each of his weakened legs onto his chair at the end of pieces that provided such a moving contrast. Just as Stradivarius is long gone, yet the sound of his violins still ennobles all who hear them, so Perlman looks physically fragile, but also represents what is most powerful and indomitable in the human spirit.

Editor’s Note: The University of Texas of the Permian Basin’s Fine Arts Series continues with the 5 Browns April 24 and concludes with the Canadian Brass May 7. Proceeds benefit UTPB’s Music Department.